Electric Showers (Help)

[jpfable]

Hi Folks, The water pressure in our apartment seems really low and we had to get a plumber out to sort out even a small increase. The Hot water just seems to drizzle from the shower which means that the shower is more or less cold. I thought we would have an electric shower fitted but.............. they do not appear to be that common in Italy, if they exist at all! I thought this would resolve the problem, heat the water and provide more pressure as it is the hot water that is the lowest. One suggestion is that I buy a shower in the UK and bring it over to be fitted but I am starting to go off this idea as I am not confident this will work due to power differences. We did have the Apartment rewired when we bought it so maybe it will be OK but, I dont know. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Maybe there's a UK electrician/plumber amongst us on the site who can advise?

Hope so!

JP

[ENGJMAX]

Hi jpfable

Most modern Uk appliances such a white goods should work in Italy ok, as for about the last 10years we have been working toward`s voltage standardisation in Europe. ie in the uk we now quote 230volts +10% -6% as our standard, (252v- 216v) not 240volts.
Italy is 220volts standard, both Italy & uk operate at 50 hertz.
In practice the appliance voltage tolerance has been increased to cover a greater range of voltages.
HOWEVER I do not think it advisable to buy a uk electric shower until you have checked out the size of the electric supply at your property. At our apartment in the centre of town we have a standard domestic non resident D3 tariff from Enel. This provides a basic 3.3kw (3,300watts) supply which is only around 15 amps.This is why you will not find any electric kettles, as they are about 2kw(2,000w) usage. Most electric showers these days are around the 8kw to 9kw may be even up to 10kw or 12kw . There is no way that you would be able to run one of these off a standard non resident D3 tariff. On my Enel bill it gives details of my supply on the left hand side of the front page.
It may be that if your property has been refurbished that a larger supply may have been installed. What type of cooker do you have.
It may be possible to install a shower pump, they come in different sizes & pressures, but you would need a plumber to advise about that, I expect however that they are much more common.
Please feel free to send me a private message, as I do not wish to bore people talking about electric`s, but designing & installing mains electrical supplies is my job.

Best wishes

John

[forzascalea]

John is right,

an electric shower will use far too much wattage and will keep tripping your electric meter therefore is not feasable. Thats why you never see them here.

If your cold water pressure is ok and hot isn't then it is an internal problem which I am sure could be sorted out (try your shower just on cold, if the pressure is ok then this is resolvable with a plumber).

The difference in pressure between hot and cold should be minimal as the electric boiler you have works on mains pressure, so if there is a large difference between hot and cold then this is a problem that needs lookinig at, it could be that there is a piping issue or your boiler needs changing (just €60 don't worry).

David

[jpfable]

Hi David, We have a new boiler already and also I am sure the building was rewired when we had it refurbished by Silvio. We have an English Kettle which works fine and we have never had a power problem so hopefully that side of things should be OK. I did notice the water meter was full of water where the dials are but thought if the Plumber had looked at this which you cannot miss, and dismissed it, then it wouldnt be the cause of the low pressure. We decided to have a new shower installed i.e. all of it with larger floor pan etc but it seems pointless if we cannot get a shower because the hot water is a trickle. Any other thoughts would be appreciated as we are comming over in a couple of weeks.
JP